1790.] 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



121 



ligible; and the Governor could only gather from the matter (who 

 fpoke bad Englifh), that a mifunderftanding fubfifted between Great 

 Britain and Spain ; but on what account could not be diftindly 



collected. 



On the firrl working day after her arrival, the people were em- 

 ployed in delivering the cargo from the fnow. The quantity of rice 

 brought in her was found to be fhort of that purchafed and paid for 

 by Lieutenant Ball, by forty-two thoufand nine hundred weight ; and 

 the Governor confented to receive in lieu one pound of butter (the 

 matter having a quantity of that article) for eighteen pounds of rice. 

 This deficiency h^d been afcertained by weighing all the provifions 

 that were landed ; a proceeding in which the matter acquiefced with 

 much reluctance and fome impertinence. 



The numbers who died by ficknefs in the year 1790 were, two 

 feamen, one foldier, one hundred and twenty-three male convi&s, 

 feven females, and ten children. 



In the above time, four male convicts were executed ; one mid- 

 fhipman, two foldiers, and fix male convicts, were drowned ; one 

 convict perifhed in the woods, and two abfconded ; making a total 

 decreafe of one hundred and fifty-nine perfons. 



January 1 791. The Indian corn beginning to ripen at Rofe Hill, 

 the convicts commenced their depredations, for which feveral were pu- 

 nilhed ; but nothing feemed to deter them, and they now committed 

 thefts as if they ftole from principle ; for at this time they received the 

 full ration, in which no difference was made between them and the 

 Governor, or any other free perfon in the colony. On the arri- 

 val of the Dutch provifions, the Governor had altered the ration, 

 and caufed five pounds of rice to be iffued in lieu of four pounds of 

 flour. 



Information having been received, that fome natives had thrown a 

 fpear or fiz-gig at a convict: in a garden on the weft fide, where 

 they had met together to fteal potatoes, an armed party was fent to 

 diiperfe them ; when a club being thrown by one of the natives at 



E thg 



